UNICEF - The State of the World’s Children 2025

Ending Child Poverty: Our shared imperative The State of the World’s Children 2025The State of the World’s Children 2025 i Foreword Astride was 12 years old when tuberculosis threatened her family’s future.

The disease paralysed her father, leaving him unable to provide for his nine children. With no choice, her mother Fanny took Astride and her siblings to the unregulated copper mines of Lualaba Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For up to 12 hours a day, Astride collected and washed copper scraps for as little as US$2 per day, breathing toxic dust, risking injury and living in constant fear. The work is dangerous – and for girls, even more so. Working in the mines exposes them not only to exploitation but also to the threat of sexual abuse. Astride’s story illustrates how economic shocks can plunge families into poverty and deny children their rights. Her experience is heartbreaking and too common: Nearly 412 million children today live in extreme poverty, while 417 million are severely deprived in at least two of life’s essentials – education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation and clean water. When families face crisis, everyone suffers – and children bear consequences that can last a lifetime. This edition of The State of the World’s Children reveals an urgent reality: Progress in reducing child poverty is under threat. Past crises – the 2008 financial collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic – set us back years. Each time, the most vulnerable children are the most affected. Today, three acute crises are converging to undo decades of improvement while undermining our ability to build the future children deserve. Conflict is spreading. Armed violence now touches twice as many children as it did 30 years ago. When violence forces children from their homes, poverty follows. Schools are destroyed. Families are displaced. Poverty rates climb. Climate change is intensifying. One billion children already live in countries at extremely high risk from climate impacts like droughts and floods. The burden falls heaviest on communities already struggling with poverty. Sudden unprecedented cuts in development aid have devastated services for children

destroyed. Families are displaced. Poverty rates climb. Climate change is intensifying. One billion children already live in countries at extremely high risk from climate impacts like droughts and floods. The burden falls heaviest on communities already struggling with poverty. Sudden unprecedented cuts in development aid have devastated services for children and could result in the deaths of at least 4.5 million children under 5 years of age by 2030, according to The Lancet. The cuts could also leave 6 million children out of school by next year. External debt repayments are diverting investment in children, exceeding health and education spending combined in many low-income countries. Countries are forced to choose between servicing debt and ensuring children can survive and thrive. These crises feed each other – climate disasters trigger displacement, displacement fuels conflict and mounting shocks like aid cuts drive countries deeper into debt.The State of the World’s Children 2025 ii Young people see this clearly. During a youth foresight workshop for this report, a 20-year-old woman from Ghana wrote: “In an economically just society, no child should trade their future for a dowry. Please remember: Your life is not a bargaining chip.” Child poverty is not inevitable. As this report shows, when countries make ending child poverty a national priority – with resources and action – childhoods can be transformed. The strides of the past quarter-century prove this is achievable. Since 2000, the rate of severe deprivation among children has fallen by a third. The number of children living in extreme monetary poverty has dropped from 507 million to 412 million. But these gains are fragile, and the window for protecting them is closing. With support, Astride left the mines behind. Social workers identified her family and connected them to a cash transfer programme. Her mother used the funds to start a plant nursery. Astride and her siblings returned to school and training programmes to learn new skills. But hundreds of millions of other children face similar threats every day. We cannot allow the momentum against child poverty to slip away. Catherine Russell UNICEF Executive DirectorContents Foreword i Introduction 1 Astride’s story from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 4

learn new skills. But hundreds of millions of other children face similar threats every day. We cannot allow the momentum against child poverty to slip away. Catherine Russell UNICEF Executive DirectorContents Foreword i Introduction 1 Astride’s story from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 4 Chapter 1 Child poverty today 5 Monetary poverty 6 Sylvia’s story from Bulgaria 1 2 Multidimensional deprivation-based poverty 13 A critical juncture 18 Hansel’s story from Peru 20 Chapter 2 Youth visions: Poverty-free futures 21 Frontlines and futures 22 Emergent acts of defiance 25 A blueprint for just futures 26 Ompfuna’s story from South Africa 27 Chapter 3 Proven ways to reduce child poverty 28 Five policy pillars for ending child poverty 29 Five actions to implement the five pillars 37 Antini’s story from the United Republic of Tanzania 38 Chapter 4 Climate, conflict and a funding crisis 39 The climate and environmental crises 40 Derara’s story from Ethiopia 44 Rising levels of conflict 45 Sawsan’s story from Lebanon 48 The funding crisis 49 Kulsum’s story from Bangladesh 54 Chapter 5 Conclusion 55 Endnotes 57 Annex 64 Acknowledgements 73The State of the World’s Children 2025 1 Introduction Poverty poisons childhood. It claims the lives of children, undermines their health and development, and limits their ability to learn. The consequences are lifelong: Adults who grew up in poverty have weaker job prospects, live shorter lives and are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Poverty also poisons societies. By limiting children’s ability to realize their full potential, poverty undermines future economic prosperity. By dividing the haves from the have-nots, it frays the bonds that tie us together. And by depriving communities of hope, it creates conditions in which violence and extremism can thrive.1 At a time in history when global military spending has reached a record US$2.72 trillion,2 hundreds of millions of children continue to live each day in deprivation, without basics like

together. And by depriving communities of hope, it creates conditions in which violence and extremism can thrive.1 At a time in history when global military spending has reached a record US$2.72 trillion,2 hundreds of millions of children continue to live each day in deprivation, without basics like schooling, clean water and a home. Why? The answer is not one of scarcity or resources; it is one of priorities.3 When progress is the priority While far too many children still live in poverty, the world has made some progress. In lowand middle-income countries, three out of five children lived in severe deprivation in 2000; by 2023, two out of five children did.4 As this report shows, the reasons for this progress are not a mystery. Governments, civil society and the international community have taken strategic and decisive action. The gains they have achieved reflect sustained political will, evidence-based policies and a determination to prioritize children’s rights.5 Countries that achieve progress make ending child poverty a national priority. They embed children’s needs into economic planning, insulating their investment in children’s futures even in the face of economic shocks and setbacks. They provide cash assistance to families. They expand access to public services that promote learning, health and development – rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And they promote decent work for parents and caregivers. The success of these approaches shows that we can make progress – and we can do more starting today. But what about tomorrow?The State of the World’s Children 2025 2 The future is now Regrettably, efforts to reduce poverty are slowing.6 If we are to reverse this slowdown and accelerate progress, we need to maintain and extend the approaches that have been shown to work in recent decades. But we will also need to respond to the new trends and challenges that will shape the lives and well-being of children in the future. As The State of the World’s Children 2024 (SOWC 2024) demonstrated, megatrends like demographic shifts, climate and environmental crises, and frontier technologies will create a world for children in 2050 that looks very different

and well-being of children in the future. As The State of the World’s Children 2024 (SOWC 2024) demonstrated, megatrends like demographic shifts, climate and environmental crises, and frontier technologies will create a world for children in 2050 that looks very different from today’s. Our response to these trends will partly determine how much we reduce child poverty. That response cannot wait. As SOWC 2024 noted, “The future is now, and our responsibilities are clear. Now is the time to shape a better future for every child.” As this report shows, societies are already grappling with the impacts on poverty of trends like climate change, rising conflict and economic uncertainty. Climate change has the potential to drive ever more families into poverty; already, four out of five children face at least one extreme climate hazard, such as flooding and heatwaves, every year.7 Conflict meanwhile now touches the lives of growing numbers of children: Almost one in five children lived in a conflict-affected area in 2024, nearly double the rate in the mid-1990s.8 As well as the heightened risk of extreme monetary poverty in conflict zones,9 disruptions to education can set back economic growth for generations, limiting long-term poverty reduction. 10 And inequalities in digital access – the gap between the digital haves and the digital have-nots – are increasingly shaping children’s access to economic opportunity. Invest in children Economic forces will play a role too – especially in determining countries’ abilities to fund anti-poverty programmes and public services. Here, the outlook is particularly concerning. As the World Bank has warned, economic growth is slowing in many developing economies,11 which risks limiting the ability of these countries to expand their programmes. The situation will be worsened by unprecedented cuts in development aid. It is estimated that these cuts will result in the deaths of at least 4.5 million children under age 5 by 2030.12 Each of these deaths is a tragedy for a family, and a shocking loss of human potential for our societies. Aid cuts will also limit children’s ability to learn and build brighter futures. International

that these cuts will result in the deaths of at least 4.5 million children under age 5 by 2030.12 Each of these deaths is a tragedy for a family, and a shocking loss of human potential for our societies. Aid cuts will also limit children’s ability to learn and build brighter futures. International aid for education is projected to fall by almost a quarter by 2026, leaving 6 million more children at risk of being out of school by the end of next year.13 That number represents the equivalent of emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy. The challenges underscore the need in many countries for social sector reforms and increased domestic investment in children.The State of the World’s Children 2025 3 National action and ownership are essential – but mounting debt threatens to undermine both. Developing countries across Africa are in the midst of a debt crisis, which is forcing governments to divert funding away from essential services for children. Forty-five of the world’s developing countries now pay more on interest than they spend on health, and 22 spend more on interest than education.14 Countries’ inability to invest in children’s health and well-being creates a vicious cycle: Failing to invest in children’s human capital undermines economic prosperity, which in turn hinders countries’ ability to repay debt. Break the cycle Without coordinated global action to address the debt challenges of developing countries,15 we risk creating an indebted generation – a cohort of children whose futures are compromised as countries struggle to service debt incurred before they were born.16 It makes no sense. It makes no sense to undermine our societies’ prosperity by depriving children of the resources that would equip them to contribute in the future. It makes no sense to tell our young people that they are the future when we are not investing in those futures. Young people know what is happening. They experience the gap between rhetoric and reality. They said the economy was recovering. We didn’t feel it. They said schools were open. Ours were underwater. They said children were resilient. We were exhausted. They said we were the future. We asked: Whose?

Young people know what is happening. They experience the gap between rhetoric and reality. They said the economy was recovering. We didn’t feel it. They said schools were open. Ours were underwater. They said children were resilient. We were exhausted. They said we were the future. We asked: Whose? Nahjae Nunes, 2023 United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Youth Foresight Fellow Whose future? Theirs. Whose responsibility? Ours.“I lost five years of schooling to the mines. But through welding I gained strength and independence,” explains Astride, 16, as she examines a window frame she has just finished welding. Astride, the eldest of nine children, grew up in Tshala, a mining town in Lualaba Province. When she was young, her father operated machinery that crushed stone. But when tuberculosis paralyzed him, he was unable to continue working. To survive, Astride’s mother Fanny – and her children – started working in the local unregulated copper mines. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, children work for as many as 12 hours per day for as little as US$2. “I knew children should be in school, but I had no choice: Either we worked in the mines or we starved,” Fanny says. Astride collected and washed copper scraps. The work was tough and risky – it meant exposure to toxic dust and chemicals, physical injury, and even sexual abuse. “Working in a mine as a girl means living in constant fear because nothing is done to protect children, least of all girls,” says Astride. Fortunately, para-social workers – trained community members who identify vulnerable families and connect them to essential services – stepped in. Fanny joined a three-month mobile cash transfer programme, receiving US$40 monthly. She used it to start a small plant nursery; she now earns an income by selling seedlings. Astride’s siblings returned to school,

and connect them to essential services – stepped in. Fanny joined a three-month mobile cash transfer programme, receiving US$40 monthly. She used it to start a small plant nursery; she now earns an income by selling seedlings. Astride’s siblings returned to school, but she chose a six-month welding course run by the Division of Social Affairs (DIVAS), through which she received a full toolkit. Today, she works in a local workshop under Papa Kamwila, a respected welder in Tshala. “I want other children to have a chance at a different life, but still many spend their days in the mines here,” Astride says. “I dreamed of becoming a doctor, but life took me elsewhere. Today, I am proud and happy with my career path.” Astride | Age 16 Democratic Republic of the Congo Forged in fire Astride, 16, raised in a mining town, trades copper dust for welding sparks.

Photo: Astride welds a brazier in an open courtyard that serves as a workshop in Tshala,

Lualaba Province.

Below: Thanks to an intervention by para-social workers, Astride was able to quit working in unregulated mines and build her skills as a welder.The State of the World’s Children 2025

5 Chapter 1 Child poverty today A t its core, poverty is a lack of financial resources. This alone does not capture the full reality for children. Child poverty must also be understood through the lens of the multiple deprivations children face in their daily lives. This chapter explores child poverty through both monetary and multidimensional definitions, disaggregated by country income group. It highlights the progress made to date, while emphasizing how fragile and uneven that progress remains.The State of the World’s Children 2025 6 Poverty violates children’s fundamental rights. In a world where hundreds of millions of

poverty through both monetary and multidimensional definitions, disaggregated by country income group. It highlights the progress made to date, while emphasizing how fragile and uneven that progress remains.The State of the World’s Children 2025 6 Poverty violates children’s fundamental rights. In a world where hundreds of millions of children continue to suffer deprivations, children’s rights in areas like education, housing, sanitation and more – as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child – are not being fully realized. At its most basic level, poverty reflects a lack of access to financial resources. According to the most recent estimates, almost one in five of the world’s children live in extreme poverty. Worldwide, children are more than twice as likely to live in extreme poverty than adults.17 Because their bodies and minds are still developing, children are also more vulnerable to the effects of poverty than adults, with potentially lifelong consequences for their well-being.18 But monetary poverty only tells part of the story.19 Poverty for children also needs to be understood in terms of the deprivations that they experience in their everyday lives. In the world’s lowand middle-income countries, more than one in five children suffer deprivations in at least two key areas, lacking access to necessities like education, a healthy diet and housing (see Figure 1.7).20 Is the outlook for the world’s poorest children improving? From the start of this century, the world made impressive progress to reduce childhood poverty but that came to a halt, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.21 Sub-Saharan Africa saw major setbacks even earlier – with some countries making little to no progress in reducing child poverty since 2014.22 As a result, the world remains far short of its goals for poverty reduction. Monetary poverty Monetary measures have long been central to assessing poverty, and these measures are regularly updated to reflect economic developments. In June 2025, the World Bank updated its thresholds to:23 $3.00 per person, per day in low-income economies (the threshold for ‘extreme poverty’); $4.20 per person, per day in lower-middle-income economies; and

regularly updated to reflect economic developments. In June 2025, the World Bank updated its thresholds to:23 $3.00 per person, per day in low-income economies (the threshold for ‘extreme poverty’); $4.20 per person, per day in lower-middle-income economies; and $8.30 per person, per day in upper-middle-income economies. Child monetary poverty is measured by counting the number of children living in monetary poor households. Lowand middle-income countries Globally, more than 412 million children live in households in extreme monetary poverty (less than $3.00 a day), representing 19.2 per cent of the world’s children.24 Increasingly, these children are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa: The region is home to just under one in four (23 per cent) of the world’s children but accounts for more than three out of four (76 per cent) of all children living in extreme poverty (see Figure 1.1).25 Efforts to eradicate extreme child poverty will increasingly need to prioritize sub-Saharan Africa. This reflects the needs of the more than 311 million children in the region who live in extreme poverty.26 It also reflects demographic shifts: By 2050, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to be home to more than a third of all children in the world, up from a quarter in 2025. By 2100, the ratio will be more than two in five children globally.27 To day, 417 million children are severely deprived in at least two of life’s essentials – education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation and clean water.The State of the World’s Children 2025 7 South Asia is another region with a high concentration of children in extreme monetary poverty, accounting for 12 per cent of the global total.28 Together, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for almost 9 out of 10 (88 per cent) of the children who live in extreme poverty, despite being home to just over 5 out of 10 of the world’s children (53 per cent).29

poverty, accounting for 12 per cent of the global total.28 Together, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia account for almost 9 out of 10 (88 per cent) of the children who live in extreme poverty, despite being home to just over 5 out of 10 of the world’s children (53 per cent).29 This concentration in these two regions is no reason for complacency elsewhere. The World Bank’s higher thresholds for poverty indicate substantial levels of child poverty around the world, even in countries that are now considered relatively well off. Based on the higher poverty line ($8.30 per day), almost two out of three children globally (65.9 per cent) are living in poverty, accounting for 1.4 billion children. In regions like East Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean, more than one in three children are poor – even though most countries in these regions are classed as middle-income.30 Figure 1.1 Child populations and child poverty rates, calculated at $3.00 and $8.30 per child a day in 2024

Source: UNICEF, World Bank and Lara Ibarra, Salmeron Gomez, et al., ‘Children in Monetary Poor Households’, Policy Research Working Paper 11203, World

Bank Group, Washington, D.C., September 2025, <https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099151009052581696/pdf/IDU-439588fb-b2c2-4d7f941b-90275692e782.pdf>, accessed 20 October 2025, Figure 5, p. 8. Progress in tackling extreme child poverty At the global level, extreme child poverty is declining. Between 2014 and 2024, the percentage of children living in extreme poverty fell from 24.3 per cent to 19.2 per cent, or from 507 million to 412 million children (see Figures 1.2(a) and 1.2(b)). The COVID-19 pandemic caused a setback but progress has since resumed, albeit at a slower pace than in the years before 2019. 0 20 40 60 80 100

or from 507 million to 412 million children (see Figures 1.2(a) and 1.2(b)). The COVID-19 pandemic caused a setback but progress has since resumed, albeit at a slower pace than in the years before 2019. 0 20 40 60 80 100 Children living in poverty ($8.30)Children living in extreme poverty ($3.00)Global child population East Asia and thePacific Europe and Central Asia Latin America and Caribbean Middle East and North Africa South Asia Sub-Saharan Africa 23% 30% 24% 8% 9% 5% 5% 12% 76% 12% 37% 5% 5% 39%The State of the World’s Children 2025 8 Figure 1.2(a) Percentage of global children living on less than $3.00 a day, 2014–2024 Figure 1.2(b) Number of children living on less than $3.00 a day, 2014–2024

Source: UNICEF, World Bank and Lara Ibarra, Salmeron Gomez, et al., ‘Children in Monetary Poor Households’, Policy Research Working Paper 11203, World

Bank Group, Washington, D.C., September 2025, <https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099151009052581696/pdf/IDU-439588fb-b2c2-4d7f941b-90275692e782.pdf>, accessed 20 October 2025, Figures 1 and 2, p. 7. 0 5 10 15 20 25 Child poverty rate (%) 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 24.3% 19.7% 20.6% 19.2% 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Number of children (millions) 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 507M 422M 443M

these children often go uncounted, with their experience of poverty going unnoticed. Nevertheless, studies from several countries, including Colombia, Lebanon and Uganda, indicate that refugees and displaced people are at heightened risk of poverty, both while they are in transit and when they arrive at a new location.66 Children from indigenous families are also often at higher risk of poverty. An estimate from the 23 countries that ratified the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention showed that 18.7 per cent of indigenous peoples – adults and children – lived in extreme monetary poverty, compared with 9.3 per cent of the general population.67

A critical juncture A global commitment to ending child poverty was made explicit in 2015 when nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), affirming that ending poverty is indispensable to achieving a more peaceful, prosperous and sustainable planet.68 As this chapter shows, progress has been made towards meeting that commitment. But, as the global recession of 2008–2010 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2022 demonstrated, progress is fragile. During the pandemic, for example, 20 million more children were living in extreme poverty in 2020 than a year earlier (see Figure 1.10).The State of the World’s Children 2025 19 Without decisive action, we risk losing momentum in the fight against child poverty. Further stagnation or setbacks could consign millions more children to deprivation.69 Figure 1.10 Children living in extreme poverty ($3.00), before and after COVID-19

Source: UNICEF, World Bank and Lara Ibarra, Salmeron Gomez, et al., ‘Children in Monetary Poor Households’, Policy Research Working Paper 11203, World

Bank Group, Washington, D.C., September 2025, <https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099151009052581696/pdf/IDU-439588fb-b2c2-4d7f20.6% 19.2% 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Number of children (millions) 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 507M 422M 443M 412MThe State of the World’s Children 2025 9 The important exception to the global trend is sub-Saharan Africa, a region which saw almost no change in the percentage of children living in extreme poverty between 2014 and 2024 (from 52.3 per cent to 52.2 per cent). The impact of conflict on childhood poverty (see Chapter 4) is evident in the 31 countries classified by the World Bank as fragile and conflict-affected states. Rates of extreme poverty among children in these states rose from 46 per cent in 2014 to 50.2 per cent – or about one in two children – in 2024. By contrast, rates of extreme childhood poverty in countries not classified as fragile or conflict-affected fell from 19.9 per cent to 11.4 per cent over the same period.31 The increasing concentration of extreme childhood poverty in fragile and conflict-affected states is particularly concerning given the inherent challenges of providing families with services and support in such settings. Fighting poverty to reap a demographic dividend Tackling poverty and investing in their poorest children is essential for African countries to grow their economies over the coming decades and reap the benefits of a potential ‘demographic dividend’. The number of children in the world has stabilized at about 2.3 billion.32 By contrast, the adult population continues to grow – and age. Globally, people over 65 will outnumber children under 18 by the 2070s.33 Fertility rates are falling and life expectancy is rising, leading to smaller , older populations (see SOWC 2024).

There is one crucial exception: sub-Saharan Africa. There, child populations are still growing,34 and the region has a rising share of

and life expectancy is rising, leading to smaller , older populations (see SOWC 2024).

There is one crucial exception: sub-Saharan Africa. There, child populations are still growing,34 and the region has a rising share of working-age adults (18–64).

Managed well, this growing population of young people has the potential to deliver a one-off dividend of strong economic growth, allowing the region to mirror the economic experience of other regions in the world. For example, East Asia and the Pacific saw significant economic growth in the late twentieth century amid similar demographic transitions.35 Success in those countries was linked to targeted policies that benefited households, grew state budgets and reduced child poverty. Encouragingly, some sub-Saharan African countries are showing early signs of economic growth, but outcomes remain uncertain.36 The key to achieving this potential lies in a careful blend of policies that focus on maternal and child health, education, and girls’ empowerment.37 Conversely, in countries where working-age populations are shrinking, a ‘demographic deficit’ could occur . High-income countries Although extreme monetary poverty is rare in high-income countries, children in rich countries still experience poverty, with detrimental effects on their lives.38 The most widely used measure in wealthier countries is relative poverty, which is usually defined in terms of a percentage of median household income in each country.39 An analysis of data from 37 countries, using a relative poverty threshold of 60 per cent of a country’s median household income, shows worrying levels of poverty in the richest countries. Even amid wealth, about 50 million children in high-income countries live in monetary poverty.40The State of the World’s Children 2025

10 Figure 1.3 Rates of child monetary poverty in high-income countries, 2013–2023

Note: Japan, Korea, Switzerland, the United States of America (2022) and Chile (2022=2021, 2018=2016, 2013=2012).

Source: For countries participating in the Eurostat statistical framework, Eurostat, ‘At-risk-of-poverty rate by poverty threshold, age and sex’ data set, accessed 21 October 2025. Data for the Republic of Korea were provided by Statistics Korea, for Canada by Statistics Canada and for Japan by Tokyo Metropolitan University. For the United Kingdom